~walk the single-plank bridge (where the chaos is)~

Demonic cultivation is known as the wrong path. It is a path tainted with evil, with darkness, with resentment. Nothing good ever comes from leaving the broad road. After all, the broad road is bright, and the single-plank bridge only leads into the night.

The right path to cultivate is through the sword. A sharpened blade is equivalent to a sharpened mind and a sharpened body. All of which is heavily supported with a golden core that is vibrant and warm, pulsating with life.

In the Chae sect, everyone is expected to uphold righteousness. Be righteous. But what does it truly mean? For Hyungwon, the head disciple, a half of the Twin Jades, younger brother to the sect heir, it is everything. Hyungwon absorbs all he is taught with a steely resolve and a cold deference. He is
brought up to be an unbreakable steadfast pillar.

Hyungwon is taught that resentful energy poisons the mind and the body. He agrees. Resentful energy is harmful. He harbors no doubts about this fact. He has read and seen how it has destroyed people firsthand. The price paid is never worth it. There is a reason for every rule, good reasons, good teachings to take to heart and live by. And these stone carved teachings, these ingrained sacred rules: Take the straight path. Reject the crooked road— if followed, will never lead one astray.

But what Hyungwon is taught conflicts with what Hyungwon knows. After all, Minhyuk, who Hyungwon knows as good and righteous, practices demonic cultivation with a smile on his face that shines so brightly even the darkness couldn’t possibly taint it.

What is right? What is wrong?

What is black? What is white?

 

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Music does not belong on the battlefield. A flute shrieks an ominous tune throughout the night, ordering a legion of fierce corpses to spill the blood of their enemies–the living.

Hyungwon grits his teeth as he tries to pinpoint the source of the shrill demonic energy tainting the air. He dodges the Son cultivators in his way, drawing his sword against those foolish enough to continue charging at him despite the army of the reanimated dead clawing at their heels. The fierce corpses do not hunt Hyungwon, they are on his side, but that does not bring an ounce of relief to him. There’s blood and dirt on his hands and on his robes. Hell fire burns green in every direction he turns but he keeps on running because he knows he must find the source.

The flute’s song grows louder the further south Hyungwon runs. Then, finally, he sees him in the open entryway surrounded by menacing shrouds of black and red coloring the pits of his once bright eyes.

Minhyuk.

Minhyuk, who was captured by the Sons. Minhyuk, who was assumed to be dead.

There’s a war that rages within Hyungwon at the sight of him. Between relief and anguish, anger floods forth above all else because everything he has been taught and stands for cannot ignore the blatant taint of evil woven into the very fabrics of Minhyuk’s being right before his eyes.

Hyungwon jumps from his perch atop one of the buildings and lands across from Minhyuk. Recognition flashes across Minhyuk’s face and he lowers the flute from his lips. Chaos continues to reign around them despite the silence of the music, in its place the echo of screams and cries become even louder.

The smile Minhyuk gives Hyungwon is stiff, almost painful, but his voice does not betray him as it stays as airy and light as possible. “Hyungwon. It’s been a while.”

“Minhyuk, you’re alive,” Hyungwon says back, strained. That is the barest truth of the statement given the circumstances. Minhyuk is thinner, more hollowed out and frail, than Hyungwon remembers, no longer b with life as if death clings to his robes, sinking its claws into his bones. Every fiber of Hyungwon’s being sears with the ache to save him. “You’re the one controlling the corpses.” It’s not an accusation but a statement of fact. Hyungown’s words tumble out with a frantic edge. “You’re taking the wrong path!”

Any sense of playfulness vanishes as Minhyuk’s shoulders stiffen at the scolding. “Ah,” Minhyuk says, thinly concealed anger seeping into the scrunch of his brows and the red the irises of his eyes, “You’re as unyielding as always.”

“Come back to Gusu with me,” Hyungwon pleads, desperate and just as pained. Surely there are exceptions to every rule. Surely there is a way to save-

Minhyuk’s glare hardens as he stares Hyungwon down. “Gusu? Why the hell would I go there?” Minhyuk sneers, “The world doesn’t revolve around your sect’s three thousand rules, Hyungwon. You have no right to bring me there to punish me just because you believe my practice of demonic cultivation is forbidden.”

“It’s not for punishment–” Hyungwon tries to explain.

But Minhyuk does not listen, his mind made up and his ears ringing shrilly with the echoes of his demonic flute. “What else could it possibly be for!?”

“I-” Hyungwon stops as another blur hops down from the rooftops to join them. It doesn’t take more than a second to recognize the purple robes as Kihyun’s.

“Chae Hyungwon,” Kihyun says slowly, making sure to stand in front of Minhyuk as if to shield him. “Minhyuk is under my sect. His punishment, if I so deem it necessary, is for me to decide not the Chae sect. I think it would be best that you leave.”

Hyungwon grits his teeth so hard his jaw aches with the force. He tries to look past Kihyun to Minhyuk, tries to bite back the frustration that simmers in his blood because he knows when presented the choice between Kihyun or himself, Minhyuk will always choose his foster brother. When Hyungown sees the resolute irate glare burning back at him in Minhyuk’s eyes, he bites his tongue and swallows his loss like a bitter poison.

“Do as you please then,” Hyungwon spits out with more acid than he intended to, but what does it matter now when they’re surrounded by nothing but ruins. He spins on his heel and takes off without a glance backwards.

What good is trying to save someone who doesn’t want to be saved.

 

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Minhyuk brings noise to the tranquil peace of Cloud Recesses. He’s loud, obnoxious, always talks before he ever thinks (if he even thinks at all) and isn’t afraid of anyone or anything.

Hyungwon hates him at first sight.

Their first meeting is a fight across the rooftops under a full moon. Clashing blades and juggling forbidden alcohol. It’s a mess. Little did Hyungwon know, it will always be a mess where Minhyuk is involved.

Minhyuk is supposed to be at Cloud Recesses to learn. Hyungwon does give him credit where it’s due though, Minhyuk understands the material inside and out, however, he foolishly squanders his intelligence on unnecessary mouthing off. The list of punishments only continue to increase for Minhyuk and in turn it also increases work for Hyungwon as well since he’s in charge of disciplinary actions due to his impeccable record in upholding all the rules.

Hyungwon isn’t even surprised that Minhyuk fights him every step of the way. Hemming and hawing at every cramp in his fingers from writing the rules over and over as if he wasn't being punished thanks to his own doing. Minhyuk's current favorite activity to pass time with is to bug Hyungwon with every single thought that passes through his head, no matter how ridiculous the question is to get any reaction out of him.

“Hyungwon, why does your sect have so many rules?” Minhyuk groans. “We should spar again, you’re not half bad in a fight. Is there anything not forbidden in Cloud Recesses?”

Hyungwon ignores him in favor of doing his own studies.

“Hyungwoooon,” Minhyuk whines again, purposefully high pitched and grating.

Hyungwon chooses to ignore that too and instead just turns a page in his book. Giving Minhyuk even a brief flick of his attention would only garner more menacing behavior from the other.

Too bad, Minhyuk isn’t one to give up so easily. Minhyuk’s hand whips forward in an attempt to grab the book from Hyungwon, but Hyungwon having already foreseen that as a possibility moves it just out of Minhyuk’s reach. Unfortunately, Hyungwon didn’t account for the strands of his headband fluttering forward right into Minhyuk’s grasp.

There’s tug and the knot holding the headband against his forehead falls to the ground. There’s a short moment of pause as Hyungwon and Minhyuk look at the fallen headband, one in disbelief and the other in confusion.

“Ah, sorry Hyungwon. I didn’t mean to-” Minhyuk abruptly stops mid-sentence as he sees the absolutely terrifyingly pissed off expression Hyungwon has on his face. He has enough self-preservation to start pleading his case as Hyungwon snatches the headband back from him. “It was a total accident! I swear I didn’t mean to grab it!”

Hyungwon reaches for his sword, scowl so prominent on his face it could have seemed permanent. All of his restraint was gone the moment his headband was taken off. “You-”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Minhyuk stammers out as he quickly scrambles for his own sword just in case Hyungwon has finally reached the limits of his patience, “Murder is forbidden at Cloud Recesses!”

“Get out,” Hyungwon hisses in fury.

“If you say so!” Minhyuk stands and gives a mocking salute with a cheery grin much unlike his previous panicked expression and makes a run for the library door without a backwards glance.

Just as Minhyuk takes off, all his paperwork left unfinished and smeared across the desk, Hyungwon realizes he’s been played.

It doesn’t matter though because Minhyuk is already running away, a trail of his laughter following.

 

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In a war, there are always those who win and those who lose.

Nightless City is a war with no winners.

The tiger amulet grants Minhyuk unimaginable power. But all power comes at a cost.

Here’s the thing heroes don’t tell you: doing the right thing isn’t always the easiest thing especially when the concept of good and evil blur at the seams.

Hyungwon knows Minhyuk is right. And yet, there he stands helpless to do anything to alleviate the situation. The best he could do is let Minhyuk go.

“Don’t do this, Minhyuk.” Hyungwon can’t believe that every choice they have made culminates into this mess right before them.

“How can I not, Hyungwon?” Minhyuk throws his arm out gesturing to the frail and sickly Son remnants, “Look at them, tell me I’m wrong. Stop me yourself, Hyungwon.” Minhyuk’s voice wobbles but he remains steadfast in his choice, “If I have to die by anyone’s hands, I’d rather it be by you. What is right? What is wrong? Tell me.”

Hyungwon shakes his head. He silently stands aside. It is as good an answer as any.

Minhyuk takes off with the Son remnants, saving them from a fate worse than death.

Regret is a poisonous thing that spreads through every fiber of Hyungwon’s being. The drenching chill of the rain does nothing in comparison to the burn of his guilt.

Minhyuk is officially declared the enemy of the cultivation world before the sun even rises.

 

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Lighting lanterns is always the highlight of spending the summer at Cloud Recesses. It’s the one activity that actually allows the students to really delve into their artistic creativity.

Hyungwon lets Minhyuk do as he pleases with their lantern. It wasn’t necessarily his choice to pair up with the other, but Minhyuk seeked him out and plopped himself down right beside Hyungwon chattering the entire time about how they were going to decorate their lantern.

It would be a lie to say Hyungwon wasn’t surprised given how Minhyuk could have picked anyone